November 06, 2007

A year from today, voters will head to the polls and cast their ballots for the person who will have to clean up Bush's sh mess. From Baghdad to Bywater to the border, he will leave behind missions unaccomplished. But enough about Bush.

The MSM's marginalization of minorities and women means we must tell our own stories. Indeed, I'm reminded of the African proverb: "Until the lion writes his own story, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter."

Last week, Americans contacted their senators and voiced their outrage that Mexican trucks were allowed to haul cargo on U.S. highways. Their voices were heard. By a 74-to-24 vote, the Senate approved an amendment introduced by Sen. Byron Dorgan that cut funding for the pilot program that gave Mexican trucks unfettered access to our roads.

Poll after poll shows the American people want an end to the Iraq war but congressional Republicans are marching in lockstep with Bush. So the American people must give Republicans – and wavering Democrats – the shove they need to end the madness.

Our troops are stuck between a president without a plan to succeed and a Congress without the courage to bring them home. But Congress must answer to the American people. Tell Congress you know the truth. They have the power to end this war and you expect them to use it.

My Facebook NBF, Greg Putland, who lives in Brisbane, sent me his take on what's happening in Sydney:

Basically the media here at the moment only real interest in APEC seems to be with the massive security not just provided for Bush but for all the world leaders attending and the possibility of riots.

The state government of NSW along with the federal government have been planning the security for quite some time now. The centre of Sydney is in what you could best describe as a lock down with huge disruptions to the lives of people who work or live in or around the city of Sydney. The police are out in huge numbers and are prepared for the worse in the way of protests and riots. Most of these protests seem to be aimed at Presidents Bush and the USA's indefinite occupation of Iraq.

Q: Do you think the U.S., or U.N. forces, should have moved into Baghdad?

A: No.

Q: Why not?

A: Because if we'd gone to Baghdad we would have been all alone. There wouldn't have been anybody else with us. There would have been a U.S. occupation of Iraq. None of the Arab forces that were willing to fight with us in Kuwait were willing to invade Iraq.

Once you got to Iraq and took it over, took down Saddam Hussein's government, then what are you going to put in its place? That's a very volatile part of the world, and if you take down the central government of Iraq, you could very easily end up seeing pieces of Iraq fly off: part of it, the Syrians would like to have to the west, part of it -- eastern Iraq -- the Iranians would like to claim, they fought over it for eight years. In the north you've got the Kurds, and if the Kurds spin loose and join with the Kurds in Turkey, then you threaten the territorial integrity of Turkey.

It's a quagmire if you go that far and try to take over Iraq (emphasis added).

Though I’m no expert on foreign policy or military strategy (an understatement), I know a little bit about politics. And it’s, well, frankly naïve to think Democratic primary voters will be fired up by a candidate who vows to unilaterally invade a sovereign nation.

Obama dismisses Sen. Hillary Clinton as “Bush-Cheney lite,” but his supersized war on terror will likely be too much for Democrats to swallow.

Hillary Clinton now holds a nearly two-to-one lead over Barack Obama. The current survey finds 40% of registered Democrats and independents who lean Democratic say they would most like to see her nominated as their party's presidential candidate. Obama is the choice of 21% while Al Gore is favored by 12% and John Edwards by 11%. Pew's April survey had found Clinton with a more modest 34% to 24% lead over the Illinois senator. Over this period, support for the former first lady has increased most among independent Democrats, liberals and moderates, college graduates, middle-aged and older voters.